LAKE PUCKAWAY PROTECTION AND REHABILITATION DISTRICT

 COMMISIONERS MEETING

April 18, 2018 5:30pm Marquette Town Hall

 

The meeting was called to order by   Chairman Gettelman at 5:30 PM.

The Certification of the Open Meeting Law was met, with it being posted on the District’s website, and  published in  Markesan Regional Reporter & Marquette Co. Tribune, and Face Book

District Commissioners in attendance were:   Gene Weber, Treasurer, Jeff Kimber, Kurt McCulloch , Roger Swanke,  and Paul Gettelman Chairman/Secretary.  Excused: Gary Wilson

Guests:      

District Members/ guests in attendance:   Numerous members from the public (approx.. 25) and Brent Binder, WDNR, and Dave Bolha, WDNR.

2. Minutes of previous Directors meeting – there were no minutes as there wasn’t a quorum for the scheduled meeting  (members missing- Comm Swanke; Comm Kimber, Comm Weber, excused, Green Lake Co Representative-non appointed)

3. Treasurer’s report—The Treasurers report was delayed to the budget portion of the meeting.

4. District member’s input— At this point the agenda was modified to accommodate the guests from the WDN R and to have questions from the public early due to the weather change and advancing snow storm.

5.  OLD BUSINESS

A.        Update of the Shallow Lake Management Work group Any update on the status of the Princeton Dam  Brent Binder gave a summary of the status of the Princeton Dam project.  Brent is the DNR Engineer that is overseeing the project at this time.  Some of the highlights of this were:  The dam itself is going to stay in place; they are going to permanently raise the flash elevation which would be equivalent to the height of the current flash boards, thus there won’t be the seasonal raising and lowering of the lake with putting on the flash boards; A fish passage will be added to help move fish through the system; Large rip/rap immediately downstream from the dam to eliminate the scowl hole which currently is safety risk;  Also do some maintenance activity on the lock channel; They have been working with the project engineer and they have been working very actively to put together the bid package.  The DOA (Department of Administration) actually runs the project based on the size of the cost of the project.  Once the final design is done the DNR staff will review along with the DOA staff.  Once that is completed, DOA will put the project out for bids.  That is a public bidding process and could happen as early as July.  It won’t happen before that but may be a little later than that.  Brent kind of runs things on the DNR side and try to get everything going along smoothly and all the permit and such processes.  The project has to be bid for a minimum of 45 days,  at the end of this time the state would enter into a contract with the “winner” of the contract.  If everything goes well we could start construction as early as this fall.  Brent indicated that there has been some changes in the dam itself and just recently they were told that the dam could be repaired with or without the drawdown.  This is new, but there are certainly advantages to doing it with the drawdown in as far as cost savings.  The DNR is committed to move forward with the dam repair regardless. 

B.         Drawdown   Dave Bohla gave a brief update on the status of the drawdown.  Dave is a Water Quality for the    Fox River and works with Ted Johnson who is the Lake biologist for Lake Puckaway.  This year was shaping up to be a real good year for the drawdown prior to any of the recent snow.  If you look at the flow at the Princeton Dam you will see that the flow was near or below the target levels for the draw down to occur.  It is still looking as a good year to do it and if we can do it in conjunction with the dam, why not?  Chairman Gettelman noted that the flow at Princeton was today was at 1180 CFS.  Based on information that Dave Bohla noted, Chairman Gettelman that we would probably have to make a motion to do the drawdown this year even though we had already made that motion at the 2017 annual meeting by accepting the Management Plan.      At this time it was opened to questions from the public with this not to be a debate type of questions.  When will the drawdown begin; thought to be June 15th.  How long will it take; Not sure.  How low will it be?;  About as low as it was last September unless Mother Nature has more to do with it. Chairman Gettelman noted that even with the drawdown not needed for the reconstruction of the dam, they are 2 separate projects that are part of the lake management plan.  Along with these 2 projects we have another one in the works that is working with the dredge bank and Island construction on the east end of the Lake.   We are working with the CORPS, FWS, DNR and Ducks Unlimited.  This project will hopefully be started in the next couple of years.  Right now we are in the planning stage and working on the grant process.  It was asked if the numbers weren’t met for a drawdown, would we put the boards on; Probably, not sure if they are budgeted to do at this time.        There were many more duplicate and related questions that followed.  When we got to the end, Chairman Gettelman asked if there were any additions.  He also noted that since it was brought up to do a vote on when the drawdown would start he would entertain a motion to start the drawdown this year.  He asked again and no one would make a motion for the drawdown to start this year.  With no motion made we moved along to the next agenda item.

C.         Commercial Fisherman Contract proposal    Chairman Gettelman noted that we have a contract set up from the past.  It was noted that Tom Monsoor was here this spring and there didn’t seem to be many fish available.  He currently is at Beaver Dam.  The past contract was from 2007.  We will need to establish some type of basic contract for future commercial fisherman if we are going to schedule any type of payments..  We haven’t had a contract with Monsoor.  No decision is needed at this time but we need to be ready to make some type of contract when the time comes. 

D.         Chairman Gettelman noted that anyone interested in shoreline permits should contact Jared Seidl.  920-303-5423 or at jared.seidl@wisconsin.gov

6.  NEW BUSINESS

A.   Walleye Hatchery   We did the first pull and then took the nets in due to bad weather forecasted.  We got 12 females and got 6 jars of eggs.  1,022,000 eggs.  More to come on this and when we will release.  The filter was broken and was fixed.   A motion was made and 2nd to pay Randy Schmidt and Rich Pergande $100 each for the clean up/Mainetence work they did at the hatchery.  Also to Pay Rich Pergande $250 for the labor of putting up the steel roof on the fry take trailer.  Motion Passed

B.     Tern Contract.  Comm Swanke made a motion to have a 3 year contract with Darryl Christensen for $1,000 per year.  2nd Comm. Weber.  Motion Passed

C.   Future meeting dates.  The intent was to schedule meeting for the rest of the year.  It was asked to have a meeting in May.  This would be to vote on having the drawdown and gaining more information.  There was more discussion on the drawdown amongst the communizers with no real direction given.  When asked of a date there was no date offered for the meeting.  (NOTE  After the meeting this was discussed with Ted Johnson and some others from the Lake Management committee and it was determined that by passing the Lake Management Plan at the annual meeting in 2017 there was no need to have a meeting to determine when the drawdown would start.  It was passed then. Thus no meeting for May was scheduled).

D.   2019 Budget 

           

 

                                        SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSED BUDGET FOR 2019

 

ANTICIPATED REVENUES                                                           ANTICIPATED EXPENSES

 

Projected Unexpended Revenues                                                  Administration………………’……….….5,000

From FY 2018…………………………..11,000

Anticipated Donations……….…..….……  100                                    Lake Management                     23,000       

                                                                                                            Hatchery                                          2,000          

 Anticipated Interest……………….....….. 500                                     Rough Fish                                    10,000

                                                                                                            Dredge Bank Restoration            5,000                                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                            Tern raft & survey                        1,500                     

   Tax Levy Recommended……..…… $34,900                                  

                                                                                                       Operations                                             41,500    

 

TOTAL REVENUE                              $46,500                                   TOTAL EXPENSES                        $46,500 

 

Probable equalization for 2019 will be .31/$1,000 or $31 on $100,000 home/property.

 

Comm Kimber made a motion to accept the proposed budget and present it to the Lake District members at the June 2nd annual meeting.  2nd by Comm McCulloch.  MOTION PASSED

 

E.    2018 Annual Mtg agenda  Chairman Gettelman reviewed the proposed agenda.  He noted that there were 2 positions up for election.  Comm Weber and  Comm Gettelman’s. Both are 3 year tems.

F.    Newletter  Chairman Gettelman noted that he was putting together the newsletter and would appreciate any input for the board and/or any assistance.

G.   Adjourn  Prior to adjournment Chairman Gettelman noted that he appreciated everyone that showed up and voiced their comments/concerns.   .Motion to adjourn by Comm Kimber 2nd by Comm McCulloch   8:30PM